Memorial Day 2009 - Section 60 - Arlington National Cemetery

Arlington National Cemetery
Section 60

A lone house-key, a melting Twix,
two Miller Lites, a crucifix.
A fifth of rum, a pack of Kools,
report cards from far distant schools.

Four hard-backed books, a tear-stained poem,
a cell phone programmed to call home.
Three dozen letters never read,
a pillow from a double bed.

A Barbie doll, three Lego cars,
Nine lightning bugs in Mason Jars.
Six polished stones, a strand of beads,
a planter filled with apple seeds.

Two coffee cups that catch the rain,
three baseball caps, a plastic train.
Eight birthday cards, a catcher's mitt,
a sweater someone's mother knit.

A thousand pictures creased and torn.
One wedding veil that won't be worn.


http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/05/23/section.60.cemetery/index.html
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Look!! In the Sky!! It's a Bird! It's a Plane!! It's Insanity Come to Claim Me!!

Ok - I have officially joined the rank of Loonies. Not intentionally, mind you, and I am still convinced that eventually I will come up with some reasonable rational reason which will explain what I think I saw this afternoon.

Eventually.

I washed the bedroom windows last night so about 45 minutes ago I was lying in bed simply staring out the windows and enjoying the view. I suddenly realized I was tracking this thing in the sky - at first I thought it was a balloon - one of those large helium ones which sometimes escapes a child's backyard party....but then I realized it was considerably larger and traveling much too independently of any wind current to be a simple balloon. Simultaneously with that thought, a helicopter appeared and my mystery object abruptly quit floating and bobbing and weaving aimlessly and suddenly sped up and adjusted it's height to pass over the helicopter and quickly went out of sight immediately after the helicopter passed under it.

The helicopter stuck around for nearly half an hour....just repeatedly circling the area north of me and then it, too, finally took off - but in the opposite direction of where I last saw the object.

I'm laughing but I'm not laughing. I tried to get Dan to look but he was not quick enough and he will only admit to seeing "something." Balloons do not fly high enough to pass over a helicopter - do they?

It wasn't like the helicopter was flying low, either, because it wasn't. And I'm on the 15th floor and this thing was flying (although flying doesn't feel like the right word - flying takes wings and it had no wings) quite a bit higher than eye level with the 15th floor.

And no, I am not high at all.

You Walk

You Walk


You walk. The floor beneath your feet
magnifies each groan and creak
yet fails to drown the droning in
your head. How often did you win?
Or better still, accept defeat?

It's memory - it's bittersweet.
It's half forgotten, incomplete.
It's left-behind abandoned sin
you walk the floor

remembering. You're feeling weak -
replaying deaths you failed to cheat.
Recall the sirens and the din
and feel the sweat against your skin.
No longer do you ride the street.
You walk the floor.

Cats Cats and More Cats